Why pray? I'm not really making a difference, am I?

I was planning on writing about the How and Why of trials we go through, but God has other plans for my day. So I'm detouring and I'll get back to that.

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately. I've always prayed. Prayer comes easily for me and I have seen many answers to my prayers and the prayers of my kids over the years. Some small, some miraculous. Here are just a few answers we got:

When I was 3 years old, I prayed for snow in July. It snowed that day and the proof is written on the wall in a shed in the village I grew up in.

 Logan prayed when he was 2 that the tape would come out of the vcr (it was stuck and we had tried about 20 times to get it out) and after he finished praying, he hit the button and out popped the tape. This happened on about 3 or 4 different occasions.

Logan and I prayed fervently for a year and a half for a father for him. God was taking a long time it seemed, but He came through when His timing was right. If Matthew and I had met earlier, I would not have "approved" of him as I was in a legalistic phase of my christian life and he would not have been interested in me. God knew that and was busy doing a work in me. So I had to wait.

Matthew and I were not exactly on the same page about when to start having children after we married. I wanted to start the process 10 minutes after the ceremony and he was thinking more like somewhere between 6 months-3years. I prayed a lot about that. I REALLY wanted another kid. 4 months in, we were pregnant!

When I was about to deliver that darling little girl, I was really scared. I had a really bad first delivery and was afraid it would be just as bad this time. I prayed and God gave me peace about it. I went in, full of faith that everything was going to go smoothly. It did not go smoothly. In fact, I was on the brink of death for about 3-4 days and didn't wake up til a week later. Serious complications, excruciating pain, a month in the hospital, postpartum. It was a horrible ordeal, but I beat the odds and lived cuz God had a plan for me. I was never so close to God as I was in that hospital bed. The icing on the cake was that the doctors had had to give me an emergency hysterectomy and so now I would not be able to have any more children! That sounds bad to most 25 year olds, but to me it was a blessing to not face that again.

Then we really wanted to buy this amazing little log house with a huge shop in the yard. It was in the country, beautiful. We didn't get it and I was more than devastated. It was like it was straight out of a storybook, quaint and unique and....it was "us". We looked at another house in the country, kinda boring, torn up floors, not very exciting. Matthew felt led to put an offer on it. We got it and it has been a wonderful blessing. We did some minor things to fix it up and it is my dream home. Simple, but dreamy :) I feel at peace here. If we had gotten the other house I wanted, we would not have been approved as foster parents because we wouldn't have had adequate room for another child/ren. I know that God knew we were going to be foster parents, and that He put us in this house on purpose.

About 3 months ago, I was tucking our 3 year old daughter into bed and, as always, we prayed together. She always prays the same thing, "Dear God, ganku (thank you) a food, Mommy Daddy safe, amen." The phone began to ring at the same time she finished praying. Logan brought me the phone and it was my husband. This was the conversation we had,
"Hello?"
"Hey, did you guys just pray for me?"
"Uh, I didn't, but Jasna prayed that you would be safe. We just finished, why?"
"I was going 100k and came feet from hitting a moose. I didn't even see him til he was right beside me. If I'd been over a few feet, I would've hit him. He was huge!"
Do you know how much faith that built in my little girl when she found out that her simple little prayer saved her daddy's life? The look in her eyes was priceless! We prayed and thanked God for His miraculous answer to our prayer.

Most recently, this week, a girl I knew from Sunday school, now a mom of 3, had cancer. A huge number of people were praying for her. She was scheduled for surgery on Monday, a 12 hour surgery. I got on my knees with my kids and we prayed hard. They got ALL the cancer and she is in recovery.

This is just a few of the answers we got, there are many many more.

Ephesians 6:12 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

These are not "coincidences". I have known God all my life and the longer I know Him and the more I spend time with Him, the more He shows me. I know He is real. I know He has a plan for me. I am currently reading a book on prayer that I would highly recommend. It is not a light read, but a powerful one. It is called Intercessory Prayer and is by Dutch Sheets. A friend lent it to me. I am looking at prayer in a totally new light since I started reading this book. The point of the book, as far as I understand, is that God is all powerful, yes, but He has chosen to do His miracles through us when we pray. We need to pray to see God move. If we don't pray, then He doesn't step in. Not that He couldn't, but He has chosen to have this deep relationship with us and involve us in this way. I know this post is long already, but I am going to share a true story that I came across just this morning that will very well illustrate this....

GOD'S 26 Guards

Here's a message that will bring you chills.

Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said,

'I'll pray for them later?'

Or has anyone ever called you and said,

'I need you to pray for me, I have this need?'

Read the following story that was sent to me and may it change the way that you may think about prayer and also the way you pray.

You will be blessed by this....

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan .

'While serving at a small field hospital in Africa , every two weeks I traveled by bicycle

through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies.

This was a journey of two days and Required camping overnight at the halfway point.

On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine, and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured.
I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord.

I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident....

Two weeks later I repeated my journey. upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated.
He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines.

He said, 'Some friends and I followed you in to the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight.
We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs.

But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.

At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite.
The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards, my friends also saw them, and we all counted them.

It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened.
The missionary told the congregation the date, and The man who interrupted told him this story:

'On the night of your incident in Africa , it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf.
I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you.
In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you.

Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?'
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up.
The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw.

There were 26

This story is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord moves in behalf of those who love Him. if you ever hear such prodding, go along with it.

Nothing is ever hurt by prayer except the gates of hell.
I encourage you to forward this to as many people
As you know. if we all take it to heart, he can turn this world toward God once again.
As the above true story clearly illustrates,
'With God all things are possible'.

More importantly, how God hears and answers the prayers of the faithful.

After you read this, please pass it on and give God thanks for the beautiful gift of your faith, for the powerful gift of prayer, and for the many miracles He works in your own daily life...

And then pass it on.

Who says God does not move on the earth today?

I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today.
To guide you and protect you as you go along your way.
His love is always with you, His promises are true, and when we give Him our cares you know He will see us through.
So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best, Just remember I'm here praying, and God will do the rest.

Pass this on to those whom you want God to bless